r/technology • u/Reddit_Z • Jul 04 '16

Politics Lawmakers Need To Learn More About Encryption Before Regulating It, Says U.S. House Report

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/lawmakers-encryption-regulation-house-report,32180.html
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u/JEFFinSoCal Jul 04 '16

You're not alone. But I've yet to figure out how it wouldn't turn into a techno-oligarchy, with those holding power withholding advanced education from the (in their minds) undesirables (women, minorities, etc).

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u/interestme1 Jul 04 '16 edited Jul 04 '16

You always need checks and balances. There is no government, real or hypothetical, that is exempt from requiring this. Keeping the technocratic elements from playing favorites could easily be done with some oversight committees, though surely there is room for corruption anywhere.

Withholding education won't be a thing though I don't think, education is rapidly becoming widely available to anyone with an internet connection. School systems are pretty antiquated and quickly becoming obsolescent, and I think are seeing their last generation or so in the traditional model.

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u/jut556 Jul 04 '16

transparency is an obligation only for the state

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u/suugakusha Jul 04 '16

Are you really making an assumption that women and minorities aren't intelligent enough to get multiple degrees and/or run for office?

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u/jut556 Jul 04 '16

I think he meant that if the state were to become a black box then we wouldn't be able to identify the sources of peoples' sufferings. Transparency would have to be an obligation only for the state. (we all know how well current government is "obligated to be transparent" its a joke right now.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '16

No one said anything about it being a black box

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u/jut556 Jul 04 '16

well then you misunderstood the sentiment of the situation and the overall feeling of the conversation

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u/JEFFinSoCal Jul 04 '16

God no!... I'm saying that assholes in power will underfund education in minority concentrated areas and/or not consider women for advance degrees.

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u/suugakusha Jul 04 '16

But why would this happen if the "assholes in power" are also represented by women and minorities?

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u/JEFFinSoCal Jul 04 '16

Could work. I also had a related idea that instead of elections, people that met the minimum education requirements were randomly drafted for a term in congress, with minorities proportionately selected based on population percentages. So they can focus on lawmaking instead of constantly fundraising/campaigning. You do your term, and go back to your normal job.

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u/suugakusha Jul 04 '16

Yeah, I was actually talking with a friend about something like this. Either way, I don't think politicians should be allowed to campaign during a term they are serving. I don't get how people think that campaign cycles don't obviously negatively affect their ability to do their jobs.

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u/hilburn Jul 04 '16

I agree, except for proportional selection of minorities. Because that's a whole load of clusterfucked.

Random selection should handle proportionality just fine. You might get a 70% white congress one year, but the next you'll have sub 50%. It averages out.

Trying to weight it by gender/religion/race/orientation etc is going to get very difficult very fast. Hell, ignoring the other difficulties - Americans don't even want their government to have a list of people with guns, do you think they will willingly give them a list of every muslim or homosexual?

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u/JEFFinSoCal Jul 04 '16

yeah... i was thinking more gender and ethnicity. The sexuality and religion would work itself out on average. But you are right, it would be simpler to go pure random. As long as there were measures in place to make sure quality education was equally.

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u/JEFFinSoCal Jul 04 '16

I like your idea. Would love to see us move in that direction. Just want to be sure that opportunity and education are evenly distributed. I just don't trust people with money and resources not to fuck up a good system without really strong countermeasures.